First weeks in the hustle and bustle of London

I was lucky enough to be assigned a room in a hall that faces the Department of Aeronautics (i.e. my department), which means that I live literally 5 metres from the building in which most of my lectures take place! Besides, the hall is located right next to The Royal Albert Hall. Therefore, I had the chance to experience the premiere of the new Bond movie Skyfall which Daniel Craig and all the other stars of the movie attended.

The Freshers‘ Fair (the presentation of all clubs and societies at Imperial College) took place in first week, the so-called Freshers’ Week. Imperial College has the highest number of clubs and societies of all UK universities – more than 300. Here you can even find the floorball club, even though it is a relatively young and unknown sport in Britain. Because of my previous experience with floorball back in the Czech Republic, I decided to become a member of the club (which amongst other things allowed me to meet another TKFF scholarship holder Michal Sova). Every year, the club has around 20-30 members which makes it one of the smaller ones. It takes part in the official British South-east League as well as the British Universities Floorball League. Because each club has to have a committee, I received an offer to become of the three members of this committee, which I accepted. I am hence partly responsible for the finance, running and organisation of the club. I also represent the club at meetings of the Student Union.

As far as my non-sport activities are concerned, I have joined a volunteering society called e.quinox which is trying to solve the problem of rural electrification in developing countries. This initiative was set up by Imperial College students in 2008 and has since installed several energy kiosks in Rwanda and Tanzania, thus enhancing the standard of living of local inhabitants.

Studying at Imperial College, which is probably one of the most international universities in Britain, means that you get to meet a number of interesting people from all over the world. Owing to that, I get the opportunity to pursue my interest in foreign languages and cultures. A group conversation in four languages at the same time is nothing unusual here, especially in the late hours of the night and early hours of the morning. I think this multiculturalism is the greatest added value of studying abroad.